Storm damaged more than a dozen homes in Cape Elizabeth, South Portland
CAPE ELIZABETH — Sandra Eckhardt crossed her legs as she sat in one of the shaded chairs on the back deck of her house on Shore Road.
Instead of studying a family of ducks bobbing on the water Friday, she watched a mechanical claw remove tree limbs and branches from her neighbor’s roof.
Her front door was blocked by an uprooted tree that crushed — and totaled — her 10-year-old black Lexus. “If I had only taken that car yesterday to do my errands, it would still be here,” she said.
A tree sits on a car Friday after falling during Thursday’s storm on Shore Road in Cape Elizabeth. (Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer)
A series of intense storms that passed through southern and central Maine on Thursday afternoon tore up the southern suburbs of Portland, toppling trees and causing thousands to lose power, including the Portland International Jetport. Roads were closed in South Portland and Cape Elizabeth, and more than a dozen homes were damaged. Cape Elizabeth officials said that there were no injuries.
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Eckhardt barely had made it home from grocery shopping when she saw the skies darken and heard her house shake. Hail — that she described as the size of golf balls — pounded against her house.
“It sounded like rocks,” she said. “I was frightened.” She was convinced that her double-paned windows were going to shatter, though they withstood the storm.
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The tree by her driveway fell, and downed power lines snaked along the road. Her neighbor on the other side had seven or so toppled trees on his property.
“If the wind was going the other way, it would have gone right through the house,” she said.
Central Maine Power Co. crews worked through the night and into Friday morning, restoring power to more than 12,500 customers, according to the utility company. As of Friday afternoon, 100 customers in Cumberland County, almost all in Cape Elizabeth, were still without power.
The city of South Portland responded to more than 60 tree calls on Thursday, and anticipated that the number will increase over the next few days. In a public alert posted online, the city said it has weeks of work ahead.
The city postponed its Share the Path event — a bike safety ride along the Greenbelt that was scheduled for Saturday morning — because there were several downed trees on the path, according to Shara Dee, South Portland’s communications officer.
On Friday, limbs, branches and leaves still littered many roads as they gradually reopened.
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Max Bragg, the owner of MB tree service, a Scarborough-based tree removal company, said that his team has been busy in the aftermath of the storm. He received about 50 phone calls and 15 text messages as of about noon on Friday, when the company removed the tree from Eckhardt’s neighbor’s roof and reduced it to mulch.
Laurence Palmer, one of the workers, thinks that it was the perfect storm. “It’s been so dry recently,” he said. “And the trees sucked up the rain and were so heavy, so when the high winds hit, it knocked them down.” When he cut into many of the fallen trees, the heartwood was loaded with moisture.
Derek Freeman, left and Brad Pearson of Anything Goes landscaping work together to clean up storm damage on Shore Road in Cape Elizabeth Friday. (Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Staff Photographer)
In neighboring South Portland, a huge branch filled a front yard on Cash Street. During the storm, it wiped the front steps away and landed on the two cars parked in the driveway.
Caution tape blocked off the residence, as if it were a crime scene.
Sage Cornish nailed a poster to the trunk of the big tree that the branch fell from. “Thank you for your support through this tough time,” the sign read, right below her mother Angie Vandeventer’s CashApp account information. They don’t have homeowner’s insurance, and they don’t have full-coverage car insurance.
They’re still trying to assess the extent of the damage. The branch obscured the cars, and a corner of the roof seemed like it was hit.
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“I guess we’ll try to start cleaning up,” Vandeventer said, as she surveyed the mess. The fire department told her that the power lines were no longer live.
South Portland city staff will remove branches from public trees, but will not pick up branches or debris from private property. Residents can drop off brush, branches, logs and small stumps at the transfer station for free until 3:30 p.m. Aug. 22. In Cape Elizabeth, the department of public works will waive fees for storm debris removal through Aug. 21.
Vandeventer, who’s lived in what used to be her father’s house since December, was still in shock almost 24 hours later.
For a second, she was convinced it was a tornado. When she felt the air shift, she went outside to close the car windows.
When the awning covering the back steps fell on her, she realized just how powerful the wind gusts were. And she did not want to take any chances.
She rushed inside, closed all of the windows and hunkered down with Cornish and her 7-month-old granddaughter. They heard a crash. Cornish looked out the window.
“The tree is gone,” she said. “It’s in the yard. And the porch is gone.” Ten minutes later, the storm receded.
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Tagged: storm, storm recovery
Dana Richie is a community reporter covering South Portland and Cape Elizabeth. Originally from Atlanta, she fell in love with the landscape and quirks of coastal New England while completing her undergraduate. More by Dana Richie
